McKinney-Based IESI-Texas Receives `Keep Texas Beautiful’ Award

Keep Texas Beautiful recently announced IESI-Texas Region, headquartered in McKinney, as the recipient of the 2011 Ebby Halliday & Maurice Acers Business/Industry Innovation Award, one of nine awards KTB bestows to honor those who protect the Texas environment and support the organization’s mission to make Texas the cleanest, most beautiful state in the nation. The Halliday/Acers Award recognizes businesses with sound environmental principles. The Innovation Award recipient is recognized for projects, programs or initiatives that can be replicated by others to further the KTB mission and goals.

Each year, Keep Texas Beautiful acknowledges deserving individuals, businesses, community groups, civic organizations, media, government entities and law enforcement officials for their commitment to an array of environmental issues, including litter prevention and community beautification, volunteerism, illegal dumping enforcement and education.

IESI was selected in recognition of two innovative “Firsts”, one “first in Texas” and one “first in North America”. The construction and operation of North America’s first Material Recovery Facility, built by a publicly traded company, to achieve LEED Gold certification garnered national attention and set the benchmark for recycling operations building standards. The facility is built from recycled materials for the purpose of recycling materials. Opened in October 2009, it was awarded LEED Gold certification in June of 2010.

The “first in Texas” project was the implementation of the first publicly traded company pilot CNG fueled garbage truck at IESI’s Haltom City facility. The test project’s purpose is to compare performance, efficiency and operational costs of a CNG fleet on recycling and household garbage collection routes in Haltom City and Colleyville.

Award winners were recognized at KTB’s 44th Annual Conference, held June 20-23 in downtown Austin.

A full list of winners and award descriptions, as well as information about the conference can be found at www.ktb.org.

Keep Texas Beautiful, a statewide grassroots environmental and community improvement nonprofit, strives to educate and engage Texans to take responsibility for improving their community environment. KTB and its more than 360 affiliates work with government, businesses, civic groups, and volunteers to ensure that every Texan has the opportunity to make Texas the cleanest, most beautiful state in the nation. For more information on programs and events, call 1-800-CLEAN-TX or visit www.ktb.org.